Everything You Must Know About Link Building Resellers: The Pros, The Cons, and Potential Alternatives

So, you’re thinking of hiring a link building reseller?

Well, before you do, you should know a few things. 

These companies promise to deliver a certain number of links for a set price. In theory, it sounds like a great deal, but link building resellers can sometimes not be reliable source for high-quality links or links that will stand the test of time.

This guide will explore exactly why. 

We’ll also cover a few potential alternatives.

Whether you’re just getting your hands dirty with link building, vetting agencies, or you’re looking for ways to improve your current campaign – read on!

What is a Link Building Reseller?

In short, a link building reseller is a company that sells links. They usually have a large pool of websites that they can draw from, and they promise to deliver a certain number of links for a fixed price. 

Instead of working with you to develop a custom link building strategy, they simply sell you links that they have already acquired.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that reseller links are bad. It means you’re paying more for a service that doesn’t offer much customization or value-add.

But this is just one issue with link building resellers. 

Let’s look at some of the other reasons you should avoid them and find another source for your link building efforts.

Why Link Building Resellers Aren’t a Reliable Option For Most Businesses

Here are a few of the most important reasons why you should avoid link building resellers:

1. You Have No Control Over the Links

As we mentioned earlier, resellers usually simply sell you links they’ve already acquired. This means there’s no customization involved in your link building strategy, and you have no control over the sites where your links are placed.

This is a big problem because one of the most critical factors in link building is the quality and relevance of your links. 

By working with a reseller, you have very little control over the sites from which you’re getting links.

2. The Quality of Links Is Often Poor

Not all resellers are bad, but many offer links from low-quality or spammy sites. This means you may be getting links from sites that devalue your link, or, even worse, get you penalized by Google. (I’ll explain that more later.)

Often, resellers are simply looking to make a quick buck, and they don’t care about the quality of the links they’re selling. This is a big problem, and you should avoid working with resellers who don’t have a strong focus on link quality.

3. The Links May Not Be Permanent

Another big issue with reseller links is that they may not be permanent. 

In other words, the sites that you’re getting links from may delete your links or change their policies, and you could be left without any links at all.

This is a considerable risk, and it’s something you should be aware of before you work with any link building reseller.

4. Not a Long-Term Solution

Link building establishes long-term success for your website as long as you don’t approach it with short-term tactics; if done incorrectly or using shady methods, link building can be a real struggle and can do more damage than good for your website’s ranking.

Considering with resellers, you don’t have control over the quality and type of websites, there may come a time when these links lead to a decline in your rankings. Similarly, if link resellers are using black hat link-building tactics, you can get penalized by Google.

5. No Guaranteed Results

Resellers often make big claims about getting 100% results through their link building efforts. However, they often underdeliver because there is no such thing as “guaranteed” results when it comes to link building. 

Even if they do get quick results, chances are that these will be short-lived. Plus, some resellers may resort to unethical practices such as link farming, keyword stuffing, cloaking, etc.; search engines will eventually identify these tactics, penalize your site, and cause irreversible damage.

6.  The Risk is High, and the Rewards Are Low

These issues combine to create a situation where the risk is much higher than the reward. 

Even if you find a reputable reseller who offers high-quality links, the other risks are still there.

It’s not worth working with a reseller, as you can likely get much better results through other means.

Besides, there’s one more reason to avoid link building resellers…

What “Top Players” Don’t Want You to Know…

I want to delve a little more and talk about something people don’t mention: White label services.

Many of the “top players” in the SEO industry are just reselling other agencies’ services or just reselling the same paid links from the same list – for a premium. 

They’re a dirty little secret in the industry.

For instance, I came across this in a private Facebook some time back:

This is a comment from Ryan Stewart, owner of Webris, one of the biggest SEO agencies out there.

Unfortunately, I come across these far too often – most agencies are not really vetting (or interested in) quality.

All links increase ranking to some extent – but how long will it last? This is where the waters are muddied.

This doesn’t necessarily make them bad agencies. 

But if you hire agencies who are merely reselling links off a list, or resellers of agencies doing the same thing, you’re unnecessarily paying a premium.

Why not go straight to the source?

You can work directly with the agency doing the work (hint: TLG) and cut out all of the middlemen AND increase link quality.

For instance, at TLG, we offer a full suite of link building services customized to your specific needs. We don’t resell other agencies’ services.

We do everything in-house, allowing us to create the best possible results for our clients.

We’re much more transparent about our process and results than many other agencies.

We believe that you should know exactly what you’re paying for and receive the best possible results.

Different Types of Backlinks Commonly Used By Resellers

One of the main concerns of dealing with link building resellers, is that the link quality will deteriorate, and there is no oversight over – or a lack of interest of –  where the links come from, and if manual outreach was actually done to acquire them.

The reseller’s primary goal at the time is often merely to maximize profit at all costs – regardless of what links are being built. 

A few bad links probably won’t do much harm, but if the reseller allows the link building process to deteriorate over time, Google will start to devalue a larger and larger proportion of those links and it’ll significantly harm your results in the medium to long term.

Here are the some of the links you need to watch out for:

PBNs

PBNs are a black hat technique. 

These types of backlinks will be characterized as links on sites which probably have little to zero traffic, and are full of posts filled full of nonsense text, and stuffed with content and links.

You may even be sharing link space with questionable industries as well, as these link networks tend to be used to prop up multiple sites.

We’ve all heard of SEO agencies who take over the link building process, and resort to using PBN links to give a short term boost. This is fine if it’s their own project or a client specifically wants to use this technique and is fully educated on the risk. 

But, the problem is when the tactic is used and they are not transparent about its use. The incentive for an unscrupulous agency is that it can sometimes give a very significant short term boost to results.

The problem comes later down the road. Google will eventually pick up PBN links, and if severe enough may dish out a penalty that comes very difficult to recover from. 

Web 2.0 Links

Web 2.0 links are a more gray hat technique, but you can consider them one step up from PBN links.

This is when the provider builds a number of links by using platforms like blogspot.com, wordpress.com and other free blogging sites.They may own the network of blogs, or they outsource to a provider on one of the black hat SEO forums.

These blogs will look slightly better quality than PBNs on the surface, and may be filled with content that at least is an attempt to be valuable, and may be enriched with images and videos. 

But, those blogs will most likely not have any traffic, and will be relevant only in the sense that the page and paragraph is relevant –  and the link has been added with a contextual anchor. 

But don’t be fooled.

The link building provider may be filling a link report with these types of links, and emphasizing the DA or DR metric. The authority metric will be high as it is taking the metric of the main domain (let’s say it’s blogspot.com) but this does not mean that Google gives any further weightage to the link, just because the main domain is trusted. 

This is a very outdated technique, which may not give you any results. Some of the larger, more sophisticated Web 2.0 link networks, may give you a short term boost – but will be very easy to detect, and you’re still very much at risk of link devaluation, and a penalty later.

Low quality Link Farms

Paying for links in of itself will not always lead to link devaluation or penalty  – but with any link building process, you always want to be very mindful of paid techniques, because if not done correctly, it can lead to links on what we’d term link farms. 

 Link farms can be characterized as low quality sites, that give the appearance of being a legitimate site, but have any of the following characteristics:

• Very little or zero traffic
• Ranks for junk keywords with no relevance or value
• Serves no purpose – be it serving an active readership or business purpose. 

There is a correct way to approach paid links which we discuss in much more detail in our article on buying links – so it’s extremely important to ensure that your provider is following those types of approaches if they are using paid strategies – otherwise you’ll be landed with links that either won’t have any effect, or will be devalued (and cause traffic loss), later down the line. 

Some resellers have also been known to create their own network of blogs, and then sell links on those sites. 

The incentive is clear – it keeps margins high as it’s relatively easy to build the link – they can just log into the backend, and slip the link in. 

The problem is, when its a low quality site (often with  they start inserting links to all sorts of websites.

Link Marketplaces

You’ve very likely seen some of the big link marketplaces out there – TheHoth, NOBS Marketplace, Adsy, Whitepress, LinksThatRank, Authority Builders Co and some of the other ones out there. 

The issue with these link marketplaces, is they’ve made link building seem like a “add to shopping cart” exercise. 

And the reality is – it isn’t really about that. The best links require you to have to jump through hoops, do manual outreach, and get a link on their site via some sort of editorial process. 

Link marketplaces are basically a database of sites that will pretty much link to anything, as long as the marketplace/you buys a placement. 

There’s a few reasons why using these marketplaces is a bad idea:

• The sites generally speaking are low quality. They are almost always pushing sites purely on the basis of their niche category, and SEO metrics. Skipping over many of the other markers of a good site. 
• At TLG, as part of an internal experiment, we actually scraped several databases and tried to pick out sites that we felt were of at least “decent quality” and are worth paying money for. Just to give you an example, we took one marketplace and after doing a round of bulk metric filtering and manual checks – we trimmed down a list of 6,300 sites, down to just 175. And if we delved even further, and looked at the traffic, presence of brand and others – it would likely dip to well under 100 sites. So we are talking roughly a 1 to 2% of their database was even usable. 

• Google often says they download these public databases and uses them within their algorithmic checks. The jurys out on whether they would directly penalize these links. But this is reason enough to not want to be reliant on these marketplaces. If they’re on Google’s radar, why bother using them?
• The marketplaces are basically like a big ol’ “link wheel”. Everyone on the marketplace is building/buying the same links, on the same sites. Maybe even competitors are on there and just replicating each others links. The problem is that this can create an unnatural pattern. If “bad sites” are on there, and buying the same links as you and their site is devalued – that could in theory have an indirect effect on your site. 
• Think about what the goal is of these marketplaces –  It is simply this – “stack it high and watch it fly”. There is not really any incentive to think about sustainable strategies, long term customer results, or to really think beyond profits, or what is best for the client. The marketplaces revenue relies on everyone buying as many links as they can, on the same sites – regardless of the effect it has. 

Link Exchanges

Link exchanges are a useful tactic, and can often help you land some links in your industry that would be otherwise very hard to secure

The slight problem when you have a reseller involved in the process, is if link exchanges start to take up a large proportion of the links being built.

This becomes a problem, if either the provider or the linking party agrees to do a link swap – but then reneges on that promise.

This can create an issue down the road for you, as it means you’ll potentially lose that link. 

Link attrition happens anyway and is part of the territory, but link exchanges done at scale via these types of relationships, can often accelerate link loss.

So it’s important to be working with a provider that has a tight control of the entire end to end process, and can keep close tabs on every conversation and email thread.

Personally I also find when an agency relies too heavily on link exchanges, they start to pigeon-hole links.

Here’s an example of a pet insurance company, who has a link in a SaaS firms blog post about Tik Tok marketing.

Trying to find loose context and “stretching” the relevance won’t do massive harm… 

But continually stretching relevance and having links where the link makes no sense from a topical/audience perspective, will hold back results. 

Why Google Might Punish You for Reseller Links

As explained in the previous section, there are different reasons why link building from resellers can put you at risk. 

At best, if basic quality standards are not maintained, you’ll end up wasting your hard earned money. 

And at worst, you’ll be acquiring unnatural links that Google will notice further down the line. 

If you can stop the service in time, you can probably get away with it. But, there will be a tipping point, at which the amount of unnatural link volume puts you at serious risk of penalty. 

Excessively buying link farms may even just lead to complete flatlining of results, and to be honest, people do see results from cheap “paid” guest posting (the type you see in some of the larger link building reseller databases.)

But, Google is always rolling out updates, and they will catch up. If a site has relied on spammy links too much, the likelihood of there being some blow back increases.

Now, will you get a serious manual penalty? 

Maybe not. 

But at the very least, an algorithmic penalty is possible, and you’ll see the rankings and traffic dip.

The biggest risk however, is resellers who are excessively using tactics like PBNs, Web 2.0, automated link spam, or parasite SEO. 

That is a recipe for disaster if you’re not aware of it, or haven’t given explicit permission – and this can do damage. 

Now, let’s explore a few other alternatives to link building resellers.

Link Building Reseller Alternatives That Work

If you’re serious about building links that will improve your SEO, there are some alternatives that you can consider. 

PR-Driven SEO Agencies

Many agencies focus on PR-driven SEO. These agencies work to get you featured in high-quality publications, and they do this by pitching journalists and other relevant contacts.

This is a great way to get high-quality links, and it’s much more effective (and sustainable) than working with a reseller.

Some of the reasons include:

• Authority: Because journalists and other media contacts have strict guidelines that they must follow, their links tend to be more authoritative. 
• Relevance: PR-driven SEO agencies will only target publications relevant to your industry or niche. This means you’re far more likely to get links from sites related to your business. 
• Additional benefits: You’ll also get brand exposure and traffic from these placements, in addition to links. 

At TLG, for instance, we understand the importance of content and media relations. We work with experienced writers and editors to create high-quality content. 

We also have a dedicated team of PR specialists who work to get this content featured in reputable publications.

By working with an agency that focuses on content-driven SEO, you can get the links and brand exposure your business needs to succeed in today’s competitive online landscape.

High-Quality Content Marketing

If you’re looking for a truly sustainable and effective way to build links, content marketing is the way to go. 

You must produce high-quality content consistently. This content should be relevant to your target audience and contain actionable information to help them solve a problem or meet a need.

Once you have this content, you can promote it through social media, email marketing, and other channels to get people to visit your site, engage with it, and hopefully link to it.

At TLG, we take a holistic approach to content marketing.

Even though our focus is on link building, we work to build a strong foundation first by advising on the high-quality content that our clients should produce in order to reach “linkable audiences”.

Then, as we promote this content through our link building efforts, we can get even more exposure and traffic for our clients.

Link Earning Through Relationships

Finally, you can also build links by developing relationships with other businesses and influencers in your industry. 

There are several ways to do this, including guest blogging, sponsorships, co-marketing, and other marketing partnerships.

Other ideas include:

• Joint webinars: You can partner with another business to host a webinar or other virtual event, and you can even work together to promote this live event.
• Joint e-books or white papers: You can partner with relevant people to create an e-book, white paper, or complete guide. This helps you get your name and brand in front of a new audience, and it can also lead to links.
• Freebies: You can also partner with other businesses to give away freebies, discount codes, or other items as part of a contest or promotion. These are great ways to build relationships with different brands and businesses and gain valuable links.
• Get creative: The key to success with this method is to think outside the box and develop new and exciting ways to partner with other businesses. This will help you stand out from the competition and build strong relationships that can lead to links.

Outsource To a Reliable Link Building Agency

It goes almost without saying, but one of the best alternatives to resellers, is to outsource to a link building agency, that is reliable, and has the ability to create custom campaigns. 

The worst thing you’d want is to just hire an agency that just farms everything out, or is just buying links from marketplaces (this isn’t link building!). 

TLG, for example, is one such agency. Some of the things we can do which you won’t get from link resellers or marketplaces. 

• Custom campaigns: Because we don’t just simply rinse the same list of sites over and over again, we are always sending out fresh, manual outreach emails every week. The idea behind this, is in order to continue striking up conversations and partnerships with new websites all the time. 
• Link building projections and reports: Since we know how link building works inside and out, and we want to build links that actually drive tangible results – we can help clients with customized reports throughout a campaign. Yes, we do provide real-time link reports as links go live – but even if we secure results, we dig in to find out why we had traffic increases, and run projections to find out what we need to do, to take those results to the next level. 
• Link building transparency: Our ability to have everything out in the open, showing links as they go live, showing you who we’re reaching out to and which sectors are responding well – will give you full transparency on what’s happening, an even better gauge on your market, potential target audiences you weren’t aware of, or industries you can build business partnerships with.
• Link building for humans: Link building is at its core, a human endeavor. If you want to stand a chance of getting the best, most relevant links, you’re ultimately going to require some creativity, and a “human-first” approach when you’re doing outreach or writing content. This is where TLG ticks those boxes. 

Hybrid Approach

We’ve also worked with clients who have taken a hybrid approach to their link building and SEO efforts. Essentially, combining their in-house team efforts, with selective outsourcing.

For example, we’ve had clients who preferred to do their very high-touch outreach in-house (such as to the largest brands in their industry, government institutions and media) – but they allowed us to do the volume of building 50 links a month, and approaching larger amounts of websites. 

Or you may choose to keep HARO link building in-house (If you have experts within the team who have time to spend on it), and allow outsources agencies to do everything else. 

This has a few benefits:

• Control over the types of links. Because you do have some link building happening in-house, you may naturally start trying to do the “harder” link building, where you are trying to get links on the biggest sites, or where you are trying to build brand collaborations, and it goes beyond just getting a link. But, you have the advantage that by also having an agency do some heavy lifting in terms of volume, you are still building links at scale. Plus, let’s say you find that you need to get media links – you might want to outsource that part to a digital PR agency. 
• Faster execution and ability to scale. Link building can take a long time to get in place and take a lot of investment. So by outsourcing some of your link building efforts, you’re not completely restricted by your own ability to build a link building process. Plus, let’s say you have a portfolio of sites or companies, you can put your in-house efforts on some of those sites, but bring in a trusted agency, when you need to give specific projects (or a new project) a big boost.

Budget allocation. If you’re at CMO/Head SEO level, sometimes it just takes time to get approval on budget allocation for things like link building. However, if you have some link building in-house, it allows you to do some of it with existing staff resources, and then get some proof of concept that link building will have a tangible benefit – which makes it easier to convince C-level executive/board-level to invest the budget. Plus, when you bring in an outsourced agency like ours, they can help you with selling the idea of link building to higher management – since they can run some projections and reports, to estimate the results that could be gained by scaling up link building efforts.

The Verdict?

Link building resellers are not reliable sources for links because they often use low-quality tactics that can hurt your website’s SEO.

Besides, they typically don’t provide any additional benefits, such as brand exposure or traffic.

Even if you find a quality provider, you could get links for a lower price by working directly with “the source.”

If you’re looking for a trustworthy link building agency, TLG might be able to help.

TLG focuses on quality content marketing, and we have a team of experienced link builders who can help you earn high-quality links for half the price top dollar agencies charge.